"It’s Not the Heat, It’s the Stupidity: Limbaugh Calls Heat Index a Liberal Government Conspiracy"

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Wikipedia: “The heat index … combines air temperature and relative humidity in an attempt to determine the human-perceived equivalent temperature — how hot it feels…. The heat index was developed in 1978 … and was adopted by the National Weather Service a year later.”

Rush Limbaugh: They’re playing games with us on this heat wave, again. Even Drudge, drudge getting sucked in here. Gonna be a 116 in Washington. No, it’s not. It’s going to be a 100, maybe 99. The heat index, manufactured by the government, they tell you what it feels like when you add the humidity in there. 116 – When’s the last time the heat index was reported as an actual temperature? It hasn’t been. But it looks like they’re trying to get away with doing that now.

Yes, the black helicopters are after Limbaugh and the whole country now. Well, actually if there were UN helicopters, I’m sure they’d be white, since the black ones would just get too damn hot in this weather!

In the real world, the heat index adds to the actual temperature the effect of humidity, which interferes with the body’s ability to perspire and carry away heat: “When the relative humidity is high, the evaporation rate is reduced, so heat is removed from the body at a lower rate causing it to retain more heat than it would in dry air.”

We are into a very dangerous heat wave this week that will last until the weekend. Millions of people are affected, and with heat indices forecast above 100 degrees for dozens of states, the warnings are dire. Here’s a list of the peak heat index numbers for Tuesday. One of the reasons we’re seeing such high values is because of the record flooding that we saw this spring across the Midwest and Mississippi Valley. There is plenty of available moisture that is evaporating and combined with the soaring temperatures, this is causing a “sauna effect” for dozens of states.

That is Janice Dean, a Fox News Channel meteorologist! I guess she would be part of the conspiracy Limbaugh is warning us about.

For those who don’t believe Limbaugh would actually say something this inane — I know there’s a couple of you out there — here’s the video and full transcript:

They’re playing games with us on this heat wave, again. Even Drudge, drudge getting sucked in here. Gonna be a 116 in Washington. No, it’s not. It’s going to be a 100, maybe 99. The heat index, manufactured by the government, they tell you what it feels like when you add the humidity in there. 116 – When’s the last time the heat index was reported as an actual temperature? It hasn’t been. But it looks like they’re trying to get away with doing that now. 116 – And Drudge is just linking to other people reporting this, he’s not saying it. I don’t want to misunderstand, but he’s linking to stories which say 116 degrees in Washington. No! It’s what 100, 97 98? It’s going to top out at 102 103. It does this every year. We have this – there’s a heat dome over half the country. Midwest is moving East. And it happens every summer. Every summer. If we want to cool things off – please Al Gore, schedule a global warming conference, wherever, in Washington! Go there. You want that 103 116 to get normal? It will! Within an hour of Gore announcing he’s going. Another 10 degree off when he shows up. Plus hail, and rain, and maybe some high winds to really cool people off. That’s all that has to happen.

No, Al Gore’s schedule doesn’t have any impact on the weather. Senator Inhofe’s planned speeches at a denier conference … well, that’s another matter (see After Getting Sick From Algae Bloom Exacerbated by Heat Wave and Drought, Inhofe Jokes the “Environment Strikes Back”).ABC Evening News just reported that at least 22 people have died from this massive heat wave — so the heat index is nothing to dismiss, as Limbaugh does.Given that rising greenhouse gas levels will simultaneously drive both extreme temperatures and extreme flooding, we can expect ever deadlier heatwaves in the future.Related Posts:

The tropics and much of the Northern Hemisphere are likely to experience an irreversible rise in summer temperatures within the next 20 to 60 years if atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations continue to increase, according to a new climate study by Stanford University scientists….

… there is a systematic influence on all of these weather events now-a-days because of the fact that there is this extra water vapor lurking around in the atmosphere than there used to be say 30 years ago. It’s about a 4% extra amount, it invigorates the storms, it provides plenty of moisture for these storms and it’s unfortunate that the public is not associating these with the fact that this is one manifestation of climate change. And the prospects are that these kinds of things will only get bigger and worse in the future.

Personally, we should see what he has to say if he has to stand outside in that weather for an hour. What a jerk. People are suffering all over the country. They can’t pay their electric bills for all the air conditioning. I know my mother has her thermostat on 80 or higher.

“Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environmental Program, told the Security Council that 42 million people were driven from their homes last year by natural disasters, 90 percent of which were weather-related. The “scale and number of these disasters will increase exponentially,” he said.

“The latest science that is being published by scientific institutions across the planet is in many respects overtaking the rather conservative scenarios and predictions and models the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change brought to our attention four years ago,” said Steiner.

“Whether you look at the linear warming trend over the last 50 years, an average of 0.13 degrees warming per decade that is nearly twice the temperature increases we saw over the last 100 years; whether we look at the increases in extreme weather events and storms and cyclones; whether we look at the thermal expansion of the oceans; whether we look also at the melting of the arctic summer ice, all these are not speculative data about the fact that a changing climate is a reality,” he said. “These are proven trends.”

Hi John, I have just cut and pasted the exact link again from the original and it doesn’t work. This is a problem with the FB system. I did come across it but forgot that it doesn’t work here. It works when you use a tiny URL link but forgot to use it this time.

Thank you, Paul. I linked to the Climate Portals site and found the UN security Council report. It was appalling and convinced me the UN is the last place on earth to resolve the global inaction to prevent or slow down what is certain to become the extinction of humankind. Time has run out as far as I am concerned. We are now merely spectators of the chaos that is here and will accelerate. We will suffer but not the way our children and grandchildren will.

An independent review of the BBC’s science reporting concluded that journalists boosted the apparent controversy of scientific news stories such as climate change, GM crops and the MMR vaccine by giving too much weight to fringe scientific viewpoints.

Limbaugh is being paid mega-millions to daily spew his ridiculous Far Right Wing-nut B.S. The money comes from the Ultra-Rich like the Koch Bros. This is just another in a long line of B.S. that would fill a very stinky library. Next, Lush will claim the moon is made of green cheese and it’s Obama’s fault that the rats on the moon are eating it. Yes, I agree that the people who listen to his crap and actually believe it are a dangerous bunch. If this were the 1930’s, they would be saluting Adolf. No kidding–the same kind of brain-dead , know-nothings thought Herr Hitler was just IT. You can just imagine them voting for B.S. Bachmann or Pathetic Palin. Hell, if they could get a free McCafe, they’d vote for Ronald McDonald. Remember, they voted for the other Ronald McDonald (clown) in 1980. Did they sleep through all 12 years of school? YEP! You betcha!

Meanwhile in the real world –
11.81 inches falls in an one hour in Montreal –
” Montreal’s sewer system was put to the test during an intense deluge that struck the downtown area of the city on Monday.

The downpour dropped 30 cm of water on the downtown and Plateau Mont Royal areas in less than an hour, causing flooding in some buildings and a spectacular sewer geyser on Wolfe St. between Ste-Catherine St. and René Levesque Blvd.

I don’t, but I don’t have a thermometer I use for measuring ambient temperature. But, guess what Larry, you can buy heat index indicator. It’s this incredible magical, most likely government manufactured, device that takes the ambient temperature and relative humidity and spits out this number that the government says is what it really feels like. Oh wait…

Actually, in Alabama, we embrace the sauna. As bad as humidity is during our hot summers with scattered showers, without the occasional shower and humidity, it’s even hotter because the evaporation reduces the heat. I’d rather have 90F sauna than 105F dry (and hardy plants dying). Of course, there are states which are 105F sauna right now. I wonder how high it would be without all of the available moisture.

For the smug, holier than thou, I Know Better Than You, crowd, which is about everyone here. He’s commenting the heat index is being reported as the actual temp. It’s not 116, it’s 100, with a heat index of 116. Now start making the excuses. Oh Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy. The competition isn’t so fierce. Rush has yet to beat out front runners like Hill, the originator of village idiocy, Algore, the inventor of the internet, messiah and cashier of the greenies, Obama, cult leader of the unquestioning.

Rush is the Dathan from the Ten Commandments, screaming: “No… go back to Pharoah, he’ll make everything right, this weather thing is a conspiracy! There’s no Global Warming, it’s a left conspiracy.” When uh… it’s true, and every year we get hotter and hotter. When is he ever going to learn?

Heat index has been used for years. I remember being exposed to it in HS and then again in college. There is also a Clo-1, Clo-2, used to describe how many layers you need to put on to be comfortable. Rush must be Clo-0 Bare Naked Intelligence.

Back in the 70’s there was a study done with volunteer subjects who attempted to describe their subjective feelings about who hot it felt to them at different temps and levels of humidity. This is what our “heat index” is based on. It, (like “wind chill”) is a great way for media to keep us tuned in when they throw around these ridiculous numbers. Rush is an idiot, but “heat index” is a farce.

The fat man can afford to keep his AC set at 65, and pump all the heat out into the street for the rest of us to enjoy. I’m not saying I wish a power failure on his neighborhood, or anything, but karma is karma.

Ironically, all he is doing is being a pedant. The HI is not the “Actual Temperature”. And unfortunately he’s right, people have been saying all over DC Metro area that the Temperature is going to be 105-115. All forms of media sell stories on a shock value. They have been leaving out the fact that those are the indexes, and that the Actual Air Temps are going to be between 95 and 100F.

And to further convolve things, that’s a shade temperature. (i.e. the standard by NWS.) In the sun the temps are 10-15 degrees higher with a proportunate increase in the HI as well.

Or at least he was until the Liberal Gov’t Hoax part came up. That I know is more rhetoric. :/

The heat index has to deal with how your body can handle it. If there’s more moisture, sweating isn’t as effective, no matter how much water you drink.

I wouldn’t care that much except that if people act on his claims, they’ll end up getting killed. A couple years working on the AT was more than enough to clearly demonstrate the dangers of under-estimating the heat/humidity combination…

he is so outspoken about everything….like he is just so angry I can’t stand to listen to the words coming out of his mouth because he comes off as a know-it-all who is wrong but just keeps going… there is freedom of speech yea! in my opinion I think he is a dork!

The weather is the weather. This is a good day to give thanks to the Lord! Thanks for the air and He has our best interest at heart. Heat and Cold have always been a variable and so have the natural elements. Seek the Lord and keep your cool.

Not only is the heat index a left wing conspiracy so are air conditioning unit’s. All conservatives should shut off there AC units. It’s only hot because the left wing AC units make you think it’s hot. Once you turn them off you will see it’s not that hot after all! Oh and you will conservatively save money, which is very conservative. Kills two birds with one stone, which by the way is also very conservative.

I’m such a weather junky I subject myself to the godawful right wing ads on The Weather Channel.(You know, ex-gov of Arkansas Huckleberry Hound ranting about Obamacare Shazam! Shazam! Shazam!) They’re constantly talking about the Heat Indices occurring all over the states.Sure sounds like a Liberal Conspiracy to me.hee-hee.

“In the real world, the heat index adds to the actual temperature the effect of humidity, which interferes with the body’s ability to perspire and carry away heat: “When the relative humidity is high, the evaporation rate is reduced, so heat is removed from the body at a lower rate causing it to retain more heat than it would in dry air.”.

As a Southerner, I get that. It doesn’t change that this has not set any new records.